


Haunt Me.

by Zee_Seal



Category: Fantrolls - Fandom, Fantrolls Homestuck, Homestuck, Homestuck Fan Characters, Homestuck Fantrolls - Fandom, Homestuck OC - Fandom, Homestuck Original Character
Genre: Because I live off angst, F/M, Legit this is all AU, More Bad End Au shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25038643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zee_Seal/pseuds/Zee_Seal
Summary: Sometimes, you can't run from your past, no matter how far into space you go.
Relationships: Better Late Than Never - Relationship





	Haunt Me.

Second Admiral Nataio Aurico, The Empyreon currently in charge of the 247'th fleet platoon.

A title that he had come to earn through the underhanded help of his beloved mentor, Athena Owlich. Oh he was fully aware he did not deserve his title, as he had not been anything but the bullet fired from Ms. Athena's metaphorical gun, but he surely deserved it more than his wretched ancestor. A man who had defiled the Aurico name far more than he would ever, and those who argued could take it up with his complaint box.

Not that he really had it in him to rightly give a fuck about that, quite frankly. His give a damn was busted with no hope of repairs in sight in the foreseeable future.

After his escapades as a child on Alternia, and becoming a fleet soldier along side his beloved rival, he had learned to shut everything off. Apathy was his weapon of choice. He had learned from the best how to be a disinterested royal. A perfect killing machine, as he had always wished.

He envied Orchid, however. Still, even to this day, his most beloved, his only quadrant, had something in her that he did not. He had seen it. No matter what she did to hide that there was more to her, it showed. There was something in there that, had she been given the chance to blossom from her Red Persona, and her life as a hunter, would be much better than him, in every aspect. 

But that had not happened. Him and his rival were destined to be nothing more than cogs in the machine. Fall into the status quo.

He was well aware, he was nothing but a cruel, violent and angry monster of a man, under everything. He had taken the life of a woman he loved in cold blood, believing it was his "duty", he had almost killed her rival in the same evening, and had cut off everyone else from his life post haste. He did not need anyone but his quadrant.

It was for the best, after all, for them and for him. So no one else would get hurt.

Now, he was nothing but a shell of a man, bitter, cynical, and quite frankly, done with everyone around him. Bunch of lazy degenerates, drudges of society he had to oversee. Pathetic mouth breathers, the lot of them. He did not work his ass off to get where he was in the first place for those around him to shirk their duties. 

He ran a damn tight ship and if anyone thought they were going to undermine him, they were dead wrong. 

Striding into the common area, he scanned those who where on break, sharp, and cold eyes landing on each troll there. Five of them, two soldiers who were destined for ground work that same evening, two engineers, and a medical assistant. He knew who all of them were, and what their rank was like the back of his hand. He had to, if he was going to be the most exemplary Admirable he could be.

"Is there a reason why none of you are at your designated posts." 

It was a statement, not a question. He wasn't asking questions.

"It is approximately five minutes past your allotted rest period. Move. Now." 

There's a cold edge to his voice, something that everyone knew better than to challenge. It was a death sentence if you dared. Nataio Aurico did not have time for rebel rousers and those who did not do their jobs.

The trolls in front of him looked terrified of him, as they quickly scattered from the common area, splitting to go where they were supposed to. As soon as they were gone, he sighed to himself, moving towards the coffee station that was set up in the corner of the commons area.

He needed a drink. A habit he had picked up from his superior was spiking his black coffee with a shot of scotch. He did not believe in drinking on the job, but when his job kept him behind a desk, it was a moot point. At this point in his life, it was a much needed relaxant. He had been horrified to learn that Athena used alcohol as a stress reliever, but now? He understood exactly why she did it. 

It was the only way to get through a day sometimes.

Sighing as he pulls the small flask from his inner coat pocket, he pours a shot of bourbon into his coffee.

It amused him, that Athena had mentioned they had been scouting him for the Dread Legion. He supposed he would make a fine first infantry soldier, or even perhaps a handler of those beastly men and women who were modified to be living tanks.

However, it had come as a surprise when she told him, they had wanted his genetics and his blood. To test and play with, he supposed, it was a long standing noble bloodline of notable reputation. He had turned it down at first, but he did humour the idea of it here and there when he was in thought. Perhaps a genetically modified descendant would erase whatever was wrong with his bloodline, that had made him a failure as he was. 

He would have to ask Athena about it. Probably over dinner next Sunday when they met up for their leisure day.

Leaning back against the counter, he has to pause as he sips his drink, listening to the radio that was left on by the previous occupants of the commons. Some kind of modern trash music. He never understood how anyone could like what was produced these days.

"Next up, Catie Owlich, and her current hit, Ghost!"

However, his blood runs slightly colder, when he hears who is playing next. He could have sworn he misheard, but that was not the case. The disk jockey who was running the radio station did indeed say her name. 

Catie. A name he hadn't heard in sweeps, and rarely thought about if he could help it.

From what he had heard, she was quite a popular musician now a days. Most known for her bright and eye catching fashion choices. Ended up working on an Entertainment colony planet because of getting Athena to pull some strings. 

Typical of her, really. Avoiding her duties to the fleet. But, now, he was sure, that it was for the best that she was not among the ranked officers. It was better for her if she was kept out of this life, and doing something she had a talent for. 

Something she loved.

He would never let Athena know he had actually gone to one of her shows, when they had docked on a leisure planet. She was well aware of their falling out, and had done her best to keep them apart. 

She did not play favorites, as Cate had learned, much to Cate's displeasure and anger. 

Even Nataio agreed, that Ms. Athena should have not kept him on as her apprentice, but she had. He would be eternally grateful for that.

It had been a mandatory relief of the ship's whole crew to dock there that day, but he had never expected to find her playing on that planet. But she had rose to some kind of stardom, and had become insanely popular. Not that he was surprised, the girl could charm anyone from any walk of life and befriend them. It was just the natural way of things. 

She was a destined socialite, a star, as her blood would dictate.

He had bought a ticket, and shown up to her show, dressed casually so she would not recognize him, staying far in the back of the Imperial amphitheater she was playing in. He stayed the whole show, watching her intently, and soaking in the sound of her voice played over the speakers.

It was a memory he kept quietly locked away in the back of his mind. She stirred something in him, even now, that he wanted to keep buried. Longing, love, regret, self-hatred.

Absent-mindedly reaching over, he turns the radio up, much louder than he should, but he wanted to hear what she was singing. She was always good at putting messages in her music. Personal jabs at people who wronged her, or even jabs at her own mother. Petty brat that she was.

"....I'll be your very own personal ghost....Who haunts your dreams....Cuz baby that's what you did to me..."

Nataio swallows, licking his lips as he puts down his coffee, the musically directed verbal jab hitting him where it hurt.

Right. A song about his failures. How quaint. He could tell this song was directed at him. Yet, he finds himself sitting down, and listening to the whole thing. It was absolutely about the tragedy that transpired around his culling of Raewyn. She was mocking him through music.

As Hecate Owlich did. She was a vicious woman, who went to lengths to make those who crossed her suffer. Petty, childish, and a hypocrite in every right.

Staring off into space, he thinks back to the last time he spoke to her. An angry exchange, where he had threatened her life, and the life of those she protected. The fear, the betrayal, and anger in her eyes when he had spoken those words still haunts him. It was one of the many things that stared back at him from behind his eyelids at night.

He hated the look of fear she gave him. Looking at him like he was a monster. Those large eyes judging his very soul, judging him and his actions. Sometimes, he wondered if what he had done was worth this life. If he could go back in time, he would redo everything. But it was a waste to think on maybes and humouring things that will never be.

Leaning his head back on the couch he was sitting on, he recalls how cold Cate had been at the end of their last exchange.

She told him, in no short of words, that she'd put a bullet between his eyes if she ever saw him again. He had told her that she would be dead before she could draw her weapon. Her chilling response had been "I said if I see you, not if you see me." 

And that, had, haunted him for quite a long time in his life, still did haunt him. The cold way she had said those words. There was not a hint of her temperamental anger, not a smidge of her usual tears in sight. She had washed her hands of him that very moment. It stung just as much as it did back then, just thinking about it.

She had directly told him she would kill him in cold blood if given the chance.

Back then, it had given him a short bout of paranoia, as he knew her as one of the best damn gunslingers on Alternia at the time. Now? He hardly cared about that threat. She couldn't kill him even if she was trying. The irony. He was effectively immortal save for aging.

He knew Hecate would outlive him anyway. He was well aware of the affects of the Empyreon project.

Reaching over, he flicks the radio off, sitting in silence. Mulling over his thoughts, and slowly sorting out the flurry of emotions that had been stirred up. He had spent much of his life regretting all he had done. He had work to do now, and wasn't going to be distracted by meaningless longing and heartache.

This still didn't stop the tears that had escaped his eyes. Reaching up, he palms them away, angry at himself for even shedding tears in the first place. Pointless. It was pointless to cry over spilled milk. Over past mistakes he could not right even if he wanted to.

Standing, and sighing, he goes through the internal motions of numbing himself. While doing that, he makes a cup of tea. Grabbing his coffee, he heads off to the engineering bay. He wanted the company of his rival, more now than ever.

Maybe he could talk her into getting away from work. He needed a distraction, and lord above knows she'd be willing, seeing the idiots she was forced to work with.

Absently, he starts to hum, the very same song from moments before.


End file.
